Life in Canada will go on after the blockades, protests and arrests
By Lethbridge Herald on February 26, 2022.
Editor:
Oh dear, what a performance! I am referring to the weekend’s Parliamentary antics debating and predictably passing the Emergencies Act.
Meanwhile, after a substantial delay, the combined police forces of Ottawa, the OPP, the RCMP and detachments from Ontario, Quebec and across the country proceeded to shut down and remove the illegal occupation of our capital city.
With the eyes of the country and the world on them, in about the same time as it took the House to pass the legislation, they removed the belligerent protesters who had desecrated monuments, terrorized residents of the downtown, displayed Canadian and other less acceptable flags, erected signs claiming their cause was “freedom” while threatening the freedom of others, threatened the dignity of our Prime Minister, assailed residents with a continuous blaring or air horns – just to mention a few of their methods.
I mainly watched the excellent coverage of the CBC, whose reporters (one of whom was Lethbridge’s own Judy Trinh) braved the weather and the insults of protesters to bring to Canadians the largely illegal acts of their fellow citizens, who feel victimized by scientifically and medically backed methods enacted by governments to protect us from the spread of the COVID-19 virus and its variants.
The police, mostly in riot gear, were organized, methodical and showed remarkable restraint. Protesters were pushed back and cleared from the main area of occupation, owners of vehicles were ordered to remove them, and all were repeatedly warned of the consequences if they did not comply.
Close to two hundred arrests were made, and likely more to come, trucks and other vehicles not voluntarily removed were towed, structures and debris left behind removed, and parts of downtown Ottawa blocked off to all but authorized residents and officials. I sincerely hope most of the charges stick, that fines, loss of freedom and other restrictions will be applied to perpetrators, and that the vehicles seized will go on the auction block and compensation will be given to those who have been deprived of livelihoods and peace and quiet during the occupation.
The Emergencies Act has been passed, supported enthusiastically by the Liberals, less enthusiastically by the NDP, and opposed to a member by Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition.
I noted our esteemed Member of Parliament, who reportedly was on more than just nodding terms with some of the Coutts border crossing protesters, casting her “nay” vote, and also one opposition MP describing the Act as overkill as the Ottawa occupation was merely a “parking concern” – did he really think that a few uniformed officers chalking tires and issuing tickets was all that was required to remove the entrenched blockade of Ottawa and Parliament Hill? Unfortunately this will not be the end of protests by those who feel victimized by governments.
Organized protests will continue, peacefully we hope, and the police will be called upon to protect ports of entry and government buildings.
Millions of dollars worth of international trade has been affected by border blockades, policing costs must be astronomical, lawyers will be having a field day prosecuting and defending those arrested and charged, disruptions to the everyday life of many Canadians has been affected, and we all suffer from rising prices due to supply chain interruptions by blockades.
Premier Jason Kenney, and his counterpart in Saskatchewan, are suing over the Emergencies Act, feeling it not to apply in these parts.
Did he not notice the cache of weapons seized in Coutts, or the fact that some of the organizers of the Ottawa convoy occupation are from Alberta?
As one of the protesters was heard to say when being challenged, “sas”, but not in the way he perceived the expression.
Thankfully when I switched to other TV channels I could watch young athletes performing amazing feats of expertise and endurance in the Beijing Winter Olympics. And, let’s face it, the Canadian women’s hockey team did win the gold medal! Life will go on.
Geoff Bradshaw
Lethbridge
18-17
Great comments Geoff. These idiots who are trying to pretend they are conservatives, Reformers, should all be charged also. Egging these criminals on and getting their pictures taken with them proves how stupid they are. Ignoring the wishes of 90% of the truckers who were just trying to do their jobs. Now these fools want to waste a lot more of taxpayers money with a lawsuit. How stupid are they? Well everyone but their stupid followers knows how stupid they are, don’t they?
None of us conservatives are fans of Trudeau, yet in our circle of friends, especially the retired RCMP officers, think Trudeau is a hero for the way he handled it. Freezing bank accounts and donations to prevent the purchase of more weapons was brilliant.
Now watch these brain dead senior idiots attack me for telling the truth. More and more people think they should be sued, what do you think?
Retired doctors have been telling us for years that these Reformers plan for a lot more privatization of health care will destroy rural Albertans health care services yet this fool is planning to go ahead with it. Doctors and nurses will not remain working in rural Alberta if they can make more money in these private clinics and hospitals in the cities. Why would they?
BARF – utter garbage…excellent coverage of the CBC. Time to wake up people!
exactly. anyone see the 5th estate on the protests? a classic piece of biased tripe. a microcosm of what the cbc has become. on its knees, forgoing journalism to instead be the govt’s whore.
Nobody threaten the dignity of Prime minister. He has none. He is a coward as shown by his actions and a bully. Calling Canadians with different views “misogynistic, woman hating, science deniers, racists who shouldn’t be tolerated “, speaks volumes. I noticed the woman hating racists on horses running them over. CBC wouldn’t show you that though ,because it doesn’t fit their narrative. Also it was a legal protest .Charter 2c allows for it.There we’re no “largely illegal “ acts by the protesters ,no desiccation of war memorials, the veterans there confirmed that and they are somewhat more reliable than CBC.. And yes they are opposed to an unproven and non- effective medical and social experiment. Truck drivers have for 2 years done quite well without being subject to conditions at the border. Now covid is over and the government wants to double down on rules and regulations? Crossing international border restrictions and also interprovincial restrictions? How many people have died or have adverse effects from being subject to vaccine? How skewed are numbers of covid “deaths” in what AHS makes public? Dig a little and it’s somewhat concerning. There was a news story of a multi-jabbed P.M. catching covid at will, so he had to hide like a rat.There is a news story of an elderly Queen catching covid. She simply carried on be it at a somewhat reduced schedule . Too many inconsistancies for some people.
“Too many inconsistencies for some people.” For conservatives like yourself you mean. This is why Liberals are far more reasonable because they recognize that inconsistencies as part of life. They also grasp the concept of “science in real time” during a pandemic. Conservatives take is to deny the pandemic itself, which is ridiculous.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/conservative-and-liberal-brains-might-have-some-real-differences/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQFCTV-qJJA
Thanks for that link. Charlie Angus delivered one of the best speeches in the House I have seen, heard, or read for a long time. Reasoned and passionate.
I have a book somewhere on my shelves entitled “Great Canadian Speeches: From John A. Macdonald to Adrienne Clarkson”. I don’t think it would be an overstatement to say the speech just given by Mr. Angus should be considered for inclusion in a second edition.
It was a good speech, thanks for the link. It expressed the horror that the majority of Canadians felt. Conservatives have been properly caught out on this.
In this speech he diplomatically said there was lots of blame to go around but really should have shelved diplomacy when such basic considerations and norms have completely gone missing in this iteration of conservatives. Not just coincidentally, this breach of peace, order and good government was 100% their fault, and he should have said that.
The speech I would most like to hear from the NDP at this point though, and from the Liberals, is that THEY are finally going to unite forces against the growing evil of a right wing that has lost its mind. How is this not a salient topic under the current circumstances where all the worst leaders in the world come from that side of the political spectrum? No more wishy-washy bothsidesism; what’s happening in Ukraine is a cautionary tale for us all. Pretending that a monster ISN’T hiding in plain sight while breathing down our necks is no longer an option.
You may find the following of interest as it pertains to the Canadian situation and to Ukraine.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2022/02/26/opinion/trumpism-has-arrived-canada?
https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/the-russia-ukraine-war-why-the-hawks-prevailed
In your post, you write the following: “And yes they are opposed to an unproven and non- effective medical and social experiment.” I’m sorry, but you are wrong.
The data are clear: One’s chances of becoming seriously ill or dying after contracting COVID-19 are substantially higher if you are unvaccinated. The numbers don’t lie. That is a hard-core empirical fact.
The legacy of Trump, the need to shore up words like “fact” and “truth” while a whole new group of words
has sprung up for lies.
Watching the CBC ,CTV main stream media will give you Trudeaus side of everything but not much of the true event.Take a look at the cell phone video and independent media that people at the protest or U.S. and Great Britain media were streaming if you want to see the truth.Check out the video from local business people in Ottawa at the protest.Yes,one person unknown carried a confederate flag and one carried a nazi flag.One person was immediately removed by the trucker convoy and a reward posted for the identity of the two.Yes,a flag and some desigraction was draped over the Terry Fox statue but guess what the convoy members cleaned it up on their own.The media and Trudeau then continued with their nonsense of painting all protestors with the same brush. Politicians will always say repeat it enough and the public will believe
it’s true(McKenna,s words).It was the only thing they could do to attempt to sway opinion on the legal protest.Then think about this! Why would the R.C.M.P. and police block all the media from filming what happened to the protestors when they were removing the trucks.?Seems suspicious.Why during the whole protest was not one window broken,not one business damaged ? Why would the protestors clean the streets,why would they shovel snow,why have play areas for kids,why would Ottawa residents bring food and pizzas to the protestors if they were so bad,why would Ottawa police bring coffee to the protestors,why would they shake hands with protestors?.This was no illegal protest,our Constitution ,Charter of Rights allows peaceful protest and that was what this protest was,peaceful.Trudeau took away fuel and wood the protestors were using for heat in -30 degree weather trying to get the protestors to fight back.When that did not work,the next step was to charge and ticket locals who brought food and fuel or any help for the protest.When that did not work the police chief in Ottawa threatened his officers with repercussions if they continued to be sympathetic to the protestors.When that did not work police threatened to remove children from their parents who were there in the protest.This in my opinion was enough for Ottawas police chief ,so he resigned as well as many other police officers and I commend him for his actions.Trudeau tries everything he could to provoke the protestors to justify his use of force so what did he do.He enacts an emergency act that had to be approved by Parliament and the Senate.While the debate had started in Parliament he conveniently shut down Parliament on Friday and invoked the emergency act before it was approved.Smashing an elderly woman and trampling her with a horse as she stood in her walker.The media did not mention a walker just that someone threw a chair at a horse.Give me a break,another man was also trampled trying to help this woman.Then batons smashing people,pepper spray,tear gas ,rubber bullets were used to disperse the protestors.Massive overuse of force when none resisted.They were arrested,kicked and beaten while kneeling,hands behind their backs.Charges with mischief for legal protest.The world was shocked,Trudeau was seen for what he is a tyrant,holding on to power no matter the outcome with the protestors.Then to top it off he freezes bank accounts and assets of the protestors or anyone who supports them.What it did was put a run on money removed from the banks and when Parliament resumed debate in the Senate on the emergency act it must have not looked good for him so he revoked thee emergency act
Bottom line: What EVER the imagined “protest” was about, literally camping out there like that, period, AND honking loud horns day and night AND for THREE WEEKS?! Come ON.
And they were so misinformed/ignorant/stupid that they didn’t even KNOW that, even when hundreds of police finally started rounding them up?!
One thing that’s clear, just from comments from those who bizarrely “sympathize” with this bunch of losers is that the primary motivation was a purely fanatical and irrational hatred of Justin Trudeau.
I kept hearing the query, why didn’t he come out and just talk to us despite all the signs and trucks with “F*Trudeau” plastered across them.
It was like they wanted to do a lot more than just shriek in his face with a bullhorn or throw gravel at him as they did during the last election campaign, following him deliberately and ominously from one place to another. Anyone who’s spent any time on right- wing social media for the last 8 years can see the stoked hatred.